The National Drinking Water Advisory Council (NDWAC) Lead and Copper Working Group will be continuing its review of potential revisions to the Lead and Copper Rule (LCR) through the early summer. The working group originally planned on wrapping up its meetings and submitting its recommendations to the full NDWAC this spring, but the complexity of the issues under review have caused that schedule be pushed back. The latest plan is to have the NDWAC consider the working group’s recommendations during its fall 2015 meeting.
During its February in-person meeting, the working group reviewed and deliberated upon a first “strawman draft” of potential recommendations for LCR revisions. The draft contained a wide range and magnitude of potential revisions that working group members have begun to narrow down to potential consensus recommendations. The goal of the deliberation process is consensus on any recommendations, but there are still some wide gaps in thinking that need to be bridged.
Although there is conceptual agreement that more work needs to be done to move towards removal of all lead from drinking water systems, the most feasible path forward to reach this goal from a regulatory perspective is not clear. There are still wide gaps in thinking on critical issues related to monitoring and sampling procedures, replacement requirements and schedules, lead service line “control” and, ultimately, the costs and benefits of any changes that need much further discussion.
There will be two additional in-person working group meetings over the next several months during which final recommendations to the full NDWAC will be finalized. AMWA member Robert Steidel, City of Richmond Virginia Director of Utilities, serves as a member of the NDWAC working group reviewing potential revisions to the LCR. AMWA staff is also attending all meetings and will continue to provide updates on the process.